


Lime Green Paint

by breaking_points



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Nostalgia, Pensive Musing, bughead - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-10 07:09:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12293967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breaking_points/pseuds/breaking_points
Summary: And in the endI'll do it all again.I think you're my best friend.And don't you know that the kids aren't al-, kids aren't alright?I'm yours.When it rains it pours.Stay thirsty like before.Don't you know that the kids aren't al-, kids aren't alright?~ Fall Out Boy, The Kids Aren’t Alright





	Lime Green Paint

**Author's Note:**

> This is seriously just procrastination on my au at this point. This is honestly just a rambling fic... I felt like writing sad stuff, but I can't make it completely sad with these two, now can I?  
> Please comment! Tell me if you love it. My cold, dead heart lifts a little every time I see your comments. It makes my day, my week, my month, my year, my life.
> 
> The song in the summary, of course, is a beautiful one. For clarification, One of Us is an ABBA song from their final album, The Visitors.
> 
> Without further ado, here you lovelies go...

Jughead Jones hated life.

No, that was not a reaction to a bad test grade, or a mean jock, or his favorite fanfiction not updating in what, three months (he loved Stelena, okay?).

It was an answer, or a scream, to what he felt about everything.

He wanted to release his tears, pour out his feelings in the rain, make like Adele and set fire to it or something ballad-worthy like that. He wanted nothing more to sleep and never wake up. 

His mom’s constant lack of inattention made him morose even as a three-year-old. The only person he had was Archie, his dad’s best friend’s son. Like father, like son, so they became fast friends.

He then saw Archie’s neighbor.

She was so pretty, he’d thought, like sunshine peeking through the window after a night spent in tears, like a tree that began to awake after the harsh bitterness of winter. She even had golden hair, her mom brushing it as Betty tried to sing _One of Us_ as it played on the radio.

It had become his favorite song since then, though he’s never admitted it to anyone.

She’d become his friend within five seconds of them seeing each other, though he’d - he’d always thought she couldn’t, she was so golden.

Later he’d come to describe it as the Hitchcock blonde phenomenon, but back then she’d reminded him of Rapunzel: beautiful, and caged.

He’d been aware even then that she was so _different_. She wasn’t like any of the few other females he was comfortable with. He felt free when she was by his side, felt unspeakable joy when she laughed at some of his sarcastic jokes, felt like singing when she smiled at him in the hallways.

But he’d pushed that aside, buried it in his heart, and locked his heart away when he saw how much she liked Archie.

He’d accepted it as destiny. Maybe if he kept smiling, kept nudging Betty, kept prodding Archie, he would be the best man at the wedding.

But fate wouldn’t be interesting without at least one plot twist.

It was like a painting done in front of your face. He thought he’d known how it was going to turn out - a beautiful piece depicting two people in love with each other since childhood, making people _ooh_ and _ah_ at it.

Yet fate grabbed a bucket of lime green paint and splashed it all over the canvas.

Betty had realized how much she’d just liked Archie, and how much she truly loved Jughead. He’d been unsure in the beginning, uncertain if he was just her rebound from a shattered heart.

But with every kiss, every promise, every whispered _I love you_ , she had reassured him. She didn’t mind telling him again and again, as long as she got to see that smile. She’d loved him for all he was, and loved him even more for all he was not. His heart dipped in his chest just thinking about their love.

 

The painting had changed. From a traditional piece, boring as it was beautiful, to a completely new, unexpected piece. It was weird, abnormal, strange...but it was the right way, the only way, to paint their love.

 

He buys the painting without blinking.


End file.
